Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Kalmar suggested in class today that humans exhibit herd behavior, and maybe even share a collective unconscience. It is undeniable that people are influenced by their culture in how they chose to dress, and what products they consume. I always would have assumed this was a conscious, individual decision. But the idea of a collective unconscience didn't seem THAT crazy to me this morning, in light of something i heard earlier this week about sleep and light exposure.
In the same way i knew i was influenced by my peers, i accepted that patterns of light and dark determined the rythm of my day. i thought this was more or less a conscious decision until learning about the "third eye," a clump of sensors in the center of your forehead that register patterns of light and dark. when sensory experience is limited by blocking out these sensors, an organisms circadian rythm (their sleep and metabolic patterns) go all to hell, even if they can still actually see light and dark.
So having already had one illusion of personal autonomy smashed this week, i felt quite open to the second.
disclaimer - i am not a science student. this third eye business was explained to me by my sister, who's a vet tech with a zoology degree from guelph. i glanced at some google sites to try and learn more, but a lot of it seems very hocus pocus to me. so if anyone knows more, PLEASE respond.
In the same way i knew i was influenced by my peers, i accepted that patterns of light and dark determined the rythm of my day. i thought this was more or less a conscious decision until learning about the "third eye," a clump of sensors in the center of your forehead that register patterns of light and dark. when sensory experience is limited by blocking out these sensors, an organisms circadian rythm (their sleep and metabolic patterns) go all to hell, even if they can still actually see light and dark.
So having already had one illusion of personal autonomy smashed this week, i felt quite open to the second.
disclaimer - i am not a science student. this third eye business was explained to me by my sister, who's a vet tech with a zoology degree from guelph. i glanced at some google sites to try and learn more, but a lot of it seems very hocus pocus to me. so if anyone knows more, PLEASE respond.
# posted by sam.butler @ 10:20 PM 
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I was also interested by Professor Kalmar's discussion of the group mentality. In this respect, it is a question of how, not why, fashions come and go (the reason why being that they reflect something fundamental about a culture's experiences). However, I remember him saying that it is not the unconscious acting on each individual here, but rather a distinct "group mentality" that determines fashions, such as movie genres. But I am not so easily convinced. How does this group mentality operate, if not by exerting an influence on every member of society's unconscious?
Also, I was intrigued by your mention of the "third eye". I had vaguely known it to be something discussed in the Eastern religions - some sort of inner spiritual capacity, and it interests me that such a notion may have some scientific basis.
Also, I was intrigued by your mention of the "third eye". I had vaguely known it to be something discussed in the Eastern religions - some sort of inner spiritual capacity, and it interests me that such a notion may have some scientific basis.
you are hitting the questions which are at the heart of anthropology and probably will take another century to answer with any degree of certainty. How much of what we do is "collective unconscious", "comes from society", "is structurally determined"; "is in our biology"; and how much it is our will, agency and individual spirit? Unfortunately, the sources and ways of both structure and agency are not yet even described in full, yet alone analysed. 21 century has begun with a strong assertion that biology deserves a better look at.
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